Thailand confirms Asia’s first case of new mpox virus strain

A 66-year-old man tested positive after travelling from DRC – now more than 40 passengers on his flight are being monitored

Thailand has become the second country outside of Africa to confirm a case of the new, more dangerous strain of mpox.
A 66-year-old male tested positive for clade 1b mpox after travelling to Thailand from Bakauva, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) last week, according to health authorities.
“The test results confirm that [the patient] is infected with the Clade 1b strain of monkeypox, which is the first case diagnosed in Thailand, but this man is likely infected from an endemic country,” said Thongchai Keeratihattayakorn, director-general of the Department of Disease Control.
At least 43 passengers who sat near the infected individual on the aeroplane are now being monitored for symptoms, the agency added.
Data uploaded today to GISAID, an international database built to track dangerous pathogens, revealed the case had mpox lesions on the tip of his penis, suggesting he contracted the virus via sexual transmission.
It also confirmed the specimen collected belongs to the 1b clade of mpox. The strain differs from clade 2, a milder, less infectious variant that spread in 2022, mainly among men who have sex with men.
The data was submitted to GISAID by Dr Pilailuk Okada, a microbiologist at the Thai National Influenza Centre. She is said to be the first person outside of China to submit a Covid-19 sequence to the database.
The DRC is at the epicentre of a clade 1 and 1b outbreak, where there have been 17,000 cases and more than 500 deaths reported this year. The virus has spread rapidly to several neighbouring countries including Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda since July.
A case in Sweden was also detected last week, just a day after the World Health Organisation declared a global health emergency over the mutant variant.
Mpox spreads through close contact including sex and skin-skin contact, but it can also spread through sharing towels, clothing or bedding with someone who has the virus.
There have been reports the virus can spread through respiratory droplets, although the data is limited.
The new variant appears to be more transmissible, and is reportedly infecting many people without sexual contact. The emergence of a new clade is concerning as it indicates the virus is adapting and getting better at spreading from person to person.
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